|
Articles
Don't Start Your Engines!
Written By
Mark Murphy
Does a travel agent or travel agency really need a booking engine on
their website? There are plenty of companies out there who think you should
have one, but I beg to differ.
When I ask agents about their sites and the booking capabilities, they
beam with pride that clients can book travel 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. When I ask them how many bookings they are getting on their website,
however, the answer is typically zero.
How can that be? We are talking about booking engines that rival the technology
of the top online sites in the world. How come these booking systems are
not generating tons of business for these agents?
A quick visit to Google sheds some light on the issue. Yesterday, while
I was waiting at the airport for yet another flight, I accessed the wireless
network and did a few quick searches. First I typed "travel deals"
into Google. The response was 118,000,000 websites that matched those
key words. Then I typed in "vacations" and got a search result
of 55,000,000. Finally, I tried to narrow down my search to get a more
manageable result by typing in "cruise deals." Well, that did
cut down on the number of websites that were returned...to only 12,500,000!
So here's the problem: You might have the greatest website in the world,
but if no one knows it's there or how to find it, who cares! You are competing
against millions of sites for the attention of the consumer. It's a daunting
task, to say the least.
Online sites have spent tens of millions of dollars in advertising to
drive consumers to their sites and to build their brands. What's interesting
is how consumers have reacted. The average consumer goes to three different
websites when they are looking to purchase travel. What are they looking
for on these searches? They usually want the cheapest price. What kinds
of products are they buying? They are buying point-to-point airline tickets
and hotel rooms, not vacations! Who's going to be better equipped to make
money on five dollar transaction fees selling airline tickets, you or
Orbitz or Expedia?
So what's an agent to do? The answer is you need to focus on what makes
you unique to the customer. Put simply, it's you and your experience.
It's your ability to connect one on one with the customer. It's your ability
to provide personal advice and guidance. These are things that the online
sites only wish they could provide.
Do you really want to spend your time, money and efforts trying to cut
through the clutter of millions of websites? Why not spend your time and
money marketing within a five- or ten-mile radius of your home. Become
known as the travel expert in your town or neighborhood and work with
local DSMs to introduce a variety of products to potential clients. Turn
to your Rotary club and other local organizations to get your name out.
It will pay off in spades.
And as for the whole website discussion, I'm not saying don't have a website.
Every agent should have a website. Think of it as your expanded business
card or yellow pages directory listing. Feature your areas of expertise
and why customers should do business with you. Provide contact information
and maybe even testimonials from some of your top clients. But a booking
engine? I don't think so!
tell
us what you think
|
Media
